Do you have highly functional scrum teams but are wondering how to get them to work in sync with each other, or wondering how get "start-up" efficiency in a large enterprise? Or maybe you just heard that the Scaled Agile Framework for the Enterprise (SAFe®) is gaining traction and you want to find out more about it. Before the year is out, we want to give you a primer on SAFe, so you can decide if it should be on your list of resolutions for the new year! We continue to see that Agile and Scrum deliver value and are catching the eyes of leadership individuals. But how does a large enterprise thrive with a Scrum framework that was made for 5-9 individuals? SAFe has garnered a lot of attention as a potential framework for enterprises with large product teams (5 or more scrum teams on a product line). It calls for the overall alignment throughout the organization so that the Scrum teams making up a large product development team can deliver valuable, high quality product increments with transparency and technical excellence. The program execution is achieved by leveraging the existing Scrum Team practices and interfacing with the higher Program and Portfolio layers in the organization. cPrime SAFe coach, Sri will provide an overview of the SAFe framework and show why it appeals not only to the engineers and architects, but also to the product management, customer support and the executive team.

1. The Scaled Agile Framework®
Overview

2. Who is cPrime?
AGILE SOFTWARE SERVICES
© 2014, cPrime Inc. All Rights Reserved

3. Today’s Presenter
Sri Parthasarathy
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Agile Coach and Trainer with more than 25+ years of technology experience.
Since his first days as a developer, always had a passion for the people & process
side of product & team development.
Created and managed software process that was instrumental in taking a Silicon
Valley startup to a mid-size enterprise with 30,000 customers.
Spent 10+ years managing Software Services and DevOps teams.
10+ years in Release Management and Program Management
Early adopter of Kanban for operations teams.
One of the first coaches to certify and start to train Leading SAFe across the country
B.S. Computer Science, SUNY Buffalo
© 2014, cPrime Inc. All Rights Reserved

4. Poll #1
What level of interaction do you have with the Scaled
Agile Framework®?
• This is my first time hearing about it
• I have spent time researching it
• I am certified in SAFe
© 2014, cPrime Inc. All Rights Reserved

5. Poll #2
What level of the Scaled Agile Framework is most
relevant to you?
• Team Level
• Program Level
• Portfolio Level
© 2014, cPrime Inc. All Rights Reserved

6. Poll #3
What does the majority of your projects look like?
• Agile
• Waterfall
• Hybrid
© 2014, cPrime Inc. All Rights Reserved

7. After the webinar…
• We will send directions to collect the PDU you will earn
from attending this webinar
• We will also send a links to the recorded webinar and
presentation slides once they are posted online
For more information, visit www.cprime.com

8. Keeping Pace
Our methods must keep pace with an increasingly complex world
• Our modern world runs on software. What doesn't
now, likely will soon
• We’ve had Moore’s Law for hardware, and Moore’s
Law+ for envisioning what software could do
• But our prior development practices – waterfall, RAD,
iterative and incremental – haven’t kept pace
• Agile shows the greatest promise, but was developed
for small team environments
• We need a new approach – one that harnesses the
power of Agile and Lean – but applies to the needs of
the largest software enterprises
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

9. ®
The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
The Scaled Agile Framework is a proven, publicly-facing framework for
applying Lean and Agile practices at enterprise scale
 Synchronizes alignment,
collaboration and delivery
 Well defined in books
and on the web
 Scales successfully to large
numbers teams
Core values:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Code Quality
Program Execution
Alignment
Transparency
http://ScaledAgileFramework.com
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

10. Agile Teams
• Empowered, self-organizing, self-managing teams with developers,
testers, and content authority
• Teams deliver valuable, fully-tested software increments every two weeks
• Teams apply Scrum project management practices and XP technical
practices
• Teams operate under program vision, system, architecture and user
experience guidance
• Value description via User Stories
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

11. #1 – Code Quality
You can’t scale crappy code
Agile
Architecture
Code Quality Provides:
Continuous
Integration
 Higher quality products and
services, customer satisfaction
Test-First
Refactoring
Pair Work
Collective
Ownership
 Predictability and integrity of
software development
 Development scalability
 Higher development velocity,
system performance and
business agility
 Ability to innovate
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

12. Scale to the Program Level
 Self-organizing, self-managing team-of-agile-teams committed
to continuous value delivery
 Continuously aligned to a common mission on enterprise value streams
 Fully tested, system-level solutions at least every 8-12 weeks
 Common sprint lengths and normalized estimating
 Face-to-face planning cadence provides development collaboration, alignment,
synchronization, and assessment
 Value description via Features and Benefits
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

13. What’s a PSI?
A PSI (Potentially Shippable Increment) provides a strategic quantum of
timebox and value to the enterprise
• A quantum for road mapping, implementing
and measuring
• A routine and continuous planning cycle
– Continuously aligns teams to a common mission
– Limits deviation from plan and business expectations to a
single, short time interval
• An aggregation of iteration value into larger piles
of newsworthy and reviewable value
Often NOT the release cadence
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

14. Develop on Cadence. Deliver on Demand.
Development occurs on a fixed cadence. The business decides when value is
released.
Customer
Preview
Major
Release
Major
Release
Customer
Upgrade
New
Feature
Deliver on Demand
PSI
PSI
PSI
PSI
PSI
Develop on Cadence
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

15. #2 – Program Execution
Agile Release Trains – self-organizing teams of agile teams – reliably and
frequently deliver enterprise value
 Driven by Vision and
Roadmap
 Lean, economic
prioritization
 Frequent, quality deliveries
 Fast customer feedback
 Fixed, reliable cadence
 Regular Inspect and Adapt
drives continuous
improvement
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

16. Scale to the Portfolio
• Centralized strategy, decentralized execution
• Investment themes provide operating budgets for release trains
• Business and architectural epic kanban systems provide visibility
and work-in-process limits for product development flow
• Enterprise architecture is a first class citizen
• Objective metrics support governance and kaizen
• Value description via Business and Architectural Epics
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

17. #3 – Alignment
Alignment from Portfolio to Program to Team
Alignment
Business
Owners
 Clear content authority
 Face-to-face planning
 Aligned Team, Program and
Business Owner objectives
 Cross-team and crossprogram coordination
 Architecture and UX
guidance
 Match demand to
throughput
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

18. Agile Program Portfolio Management
Agile PPM fulfills its responsibilities while enabling and fostering lean and
agile practices for business results
1. Decentralized decisionmaking
2. Demand management;
continuous value flow
3. Lightweight epic business
cases
8. Objective, fact- based measures
and milestones
5. Decentralized, rollingwave planning
6. Agile estimating and
planning
7. Self-managing Agile
Release Trains
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.

19. #4 – Transparency
Transparency builds confidence, alignment and trust
Transparency
 All backlogs and progress
visible to all stakeholders
 Objective reporting
based on working,
tested, evaluated code
 Everyone understands
backlog, capacity,
velocity, WIP
 Management leads and
fosters open
environment
© 2008 - 2013 Scaled Agile, Inc. and Leffingwell, LLC. All rights reserved.